Hussar
Hussars are masters of mounted combat. These mobile and ferocious warriors first appeared among light cavalry units, where they began to spread across the world as their effectiveness led to more and more nations adopting light cavalry tactics. Hussar adventurers bring their military skills to bear in aiding their allies through the use of formations, tactical insight and discipline. Converting Your Character The hussar is a class template suitable for use with the warlord and warder classes. When converting a character to a hussar, the character loses or changes the following class features: Warlord * The warlord gives up the bonus feats class feature. * The warlord gives up the tactical presence, dual presence, and warlord’s presence class features. Warder * The warder gives up the bonus feats class feature. * The warder gives up proficiency with heavy armor. * The warder gives up the clad in steel, steel defense, and born of steel class features. Class Skills A hussar gains Handle Animal as a class skill. Weapon and Armor Proficiency Hussars are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with light and medium armor, and with shields (except tower shields). This ability replaces the base class’ standard weapon proficiencies. Maneuvers The disciplines available to a hussar are Golden Lion, Iron Tortoise, Piercing Thunder, Primal Fury, and Solar Wind. If the hussar does not have these disciplines’ associated skills as class skills, he gains them as class skills. He otherwise learns, readies, and initiates maneuvers as a standard member of his base class. This ability alters maneuvers. Maneuvers Readied In addition to his base class’ normal maneuver recovery, a hussar recovers one expended maneuver every time he successfully negates an attack using the Mounted Combat feat. This ability alters maneuvers readied. Mount (Ex) At 1st level, a hussar gains the service of a loyal and trusty steed to carry him into battle. This mount functions as a druid’s animal companion, using the hussar’s level as his effective druid level. The creature must be one that he is capable of riding and is suitable as a mount. A Medium-sized hussar can select a camel or a horse. A Small-sized hussar can select a pony or wolf, but can also select a boar or a dog if he is at least 4th level. At the GM’s options, other animals may be suitable mounts for a hussar to select. A hussar’s bond with his mount is strong, with the pair learning to anticipate each other’s moods and moves. A hussar does not take an armor check penalty on Ride checks while riding his mount. The mount is always considered combat trained and begins play with Light Armor Proficiency as a bonus feat. Should a hussar’s mount die, he may find another mount to serve him after 1 week of mourning. Mounted Combat (Ex) At 1st level, a hussar gains Mounted Combat as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. Mounted Maneuver Expertise (Ex) Starting at 1st level, a hussar and his trusty steed are so in tune with each other that they can work as one when performing maneuvers. Whenever a hussar is mounted and uses a maneuver with a movement component (such as making a charge attack, or taking an extra move action), the hussar can have his mount take the appropriate movement in his place. If the maneuver allows the hussar to make a charge attack, both him and his mount are considered to be charging. This replaces the share spells ability that normal animal companions gain. Formations (Ex) As the hussar levels, he learns a number of formations that assist both himself and his allies. Adopting a formation is a move action for the hussar, and allies within range of someone in the formation can enter the formation as a free action. Formations have a limited range, as noted in the formation’s description. In order for a hussar’s ally to participate in a formation and gain its benefits, they must start their turn within range of another ally who is participating in the formation. Allies participating in a formation do not necessarily have to be within range of the hussar; they merely must be within range of another ally within the formation. A hussar may only have one formation active at a time, and if the hussar leaves a formation, all allies in the formation also leave that formation. A creature can only gain the benefits of one formation at any given time. The hussar selects one formation from the following list to learn at 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, and 17th levels: ---- ''Guerrilla: ''Allies in the Guerrilla formation gain a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls against creatures they flank. At 7th level, allies in the formation can take a 5-foot step once per round as a free action (even if it isn’t their turn) as long as that 5-foot step would place them in a position to flank an opponent. At 15th level, as long as two allies in the formation are adjacent to the same opponent, they are considered to be flanking that opponent. Range: 15 feet. ---- ''Marching: ''Allies in the Marching formation gain a +10- foot bonus to their movement speeds. At 7th level, allies in the formation gain the benefits of the Endurance and Diehard feats. At 15th level, allies in the formation cannot become fatigued or exhausted for as long as they remain in this formation. If an ally is already fatigued or exhausted when they join the formation, they ignore the effects of the condition while they remain in the formation. Range: 10 feet. ---- ''Phalanx: ''Allies in the Phalanx formation gain a +1 bonus to their AC and to Reflex Saves. At 10th level, these bonuses increase to +2, and allies in the formation gain evasion (as the rogue class feature). At 15th level, this bonus to AC increases to +2 for each ally in the formation (up to a maximum of +10) and the bonus to Reflex saves increases to +1 for each ally in the formation (up to a maximum of +5). Range: 5 feet. ---- ''Siegebreaker: ''Allies in the Siegebreaker formation gain a +4 bonus on combat maneuver checks when making bull rush, disarm, and sunder attempts. At 10th level, this bonus increases to +8. At 15th level, allies in the formation ignore an amount of hardness an object has equal to 5 times the number of allies in the formation, and can perform disarm and sunder combat maneuvers on opponents as if they were two size categories larger. This stacks with other effects that increase effective size. Range: 15 feet. ---- ''Surge: ''Allies in the Surge formation gain a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls while charging. At 10th level, whenever an ally in the formation charges a creature, they may make one turn of up to 90 degrees when charging. At 15th level, whenever an ally in the formation makes a charge attack, one other ally in the formation can make a charge attack against the same target as an immediate action. The ally making this charge attack must be able to charge the target in order to activate this ability, and cannot make a charge on their following turn afterwards. Only one ally in the formation can use this ability per round, regardless of how many allies are in the formation. Range: 10 feet. ---- ''Terror: ''Allies in the Terror formation gain a +4 bonus on Intimidate checks to demoralize opponents. At 7th level, allies in the formation gain the benefits of the Dazzling Display feat, except that they may use it with any weapon they wield, not just ones with which they have Weapon Focus. At 15th level, whenever an ally in the formation successfully demoralizes an opponent, that opponent takes an additional –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks for as long as it is shaken. Range: 10 feet. ---- ''Volley: ''Allies in the Volley formation gain a +2 bonus on ranged attack rolls. At 10th level, ranged attacks made by these allies ignore all concealment less than total concealment. At 15th level, allies in the formation gain the ability to launch a hail of deadly bolts or arrows that affects a 5-foot-radius burst within their weapon’s first range increment as a standard action. This attack deals 1d6 points of damage per character level of the ally to any creature in the area. Creatures in the area may make a Reflex Save (DC 10 + 1/2 that ally’s Hit Dice + that ally’s Dexterity modifier) to halve this damage. Damage reduction applies as normal to this damage, although it is treated as if it had been dealt by the ally’s weapon for the purposes of overcoming it. Range: 5 feet. ----